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Possibly Overweight Piggy - Advice Needed!

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rufcjoe87

rufcjoe87

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Bit of a strange one
One of my piggies, Arthur, has always been a big pig. I weighed him the other day and he's 1400g. Now I know this is within the healthy weight bracket but he doesn't move around much and seems to be wheezing sometimes when eating and breathing heavily. He's eating/pooing/drinking etc so I'm not too worried but, could it be he is overweight?

If so, what's the best way to cut him down without depriving him? My other piggy, Henry (who lives in a seperate cage) is always running around, popcorning and in and out, Arthur tends to only get up to eat, then just chill out lying down!

How can I get him to either be more active or lose weight wihtout him missing out too much

They both have 3 lots of veg twice a day (breakfast and dinner) a handful of pellets, hay and some readigrass/dandelion mix once a day. Theres also usually a popcorn stick in there too!

Any advice appreciated!
 
Well i'm no expert but my Grace was a whopping 1400g until june when she started to lose weight, it was a slow weight loss so i wasn't overly concerned & also i had just had to introduce her to Dopple & Orca after i lost my little old lady Ellie.

Now Ellie (at the time 5yrs old) was a very laid back lady & met Grace (approx a year without looking) Grace took on the idyllic lifestyle that Ellie showed her & basically turned into a right chunker... although glad to say a healthy one (touch wood) over the 3+ yrs that i have had her.
Now the other two are in long with her, she runs around & popcorns so much more, getting even more excited about hay& veggietime!
Also the other two tend to eat quicker and try to steal Graces veggie so she runs off with it to chew in a tube or corner where the other two cant reach!

if Arthur is in on his own, perhaps you could try putting slightly smaller amounts of veggie in generally & scattering them around the cage so that he has to move around & hunt for his veggies making him move more :)

i think foods like maize/sweetcorn are weight gaining foods so maybe cut down on those a little & use as treats occasionally if you like.

i would take out the popcorn stick too, these are high in sugar so again only give him occasionally if you really want him to have them.
Give him plenty of floortime as much as you can provide to get him moving.

but to be honest he could just be a big pig, the same as humans they vary in size, build, temperament, laziness & personality, etc.

Good luck with his diet! ahh bless :luv: xx
 
I'm not an expert but maybe once a day try and take him out for play time on the floor and let him run around. I do this with my pigs and they love it! Maybe give readigrass a little more occasionally I don't know if it's fattening but you could maybe replace it with fresh grass and give him at least a handful of readigrass once to twice a week? As I said I don't know if readigrass is fattening but it might be worth a try? Also I think readigrass is quite high in calcium? Also you could scatter his veggies and pellets around his cage to make him work for it a little more. Hand some veggies on some string put them on top of things. Hope this kind of helped but I'm not an expert so maybe wait until someone knows what their talking about:D but hope your piggies are doing fine:)
 
I'd take out the popcorn stick, and maybe reduce his pellets. My 1450g boy gradually dropped to 1200g when I had to stop feeding pellets due to a bladder stone.

Extra floor time is a good idea too.
 
Agree with all of the above, he may just be a big pig but take out the popcorn stick and cut down the readigrass. I don't feed it as it is high in sugar and flares my pigs' bladder issues.
 
Thanks everyone for your responses it is much appreciated! It could be the fact he's just a big, chilled out, laid back pig, bless him!

I'll try your suggestions above, cut him down, spread his veg out and give him more floor time and just keep an eye on him!

Thanks again for all your help, it's nice to know pics can live healthily and happily even iff they are on the bigger side!

Thanks guys - i'll keep you posted :)
 
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